Silent Arrow Wins Air Force Contract to Develop 200 Mile Contested Logistics Drone

The funding will help the development, building and flight test of 6 Silent Arrow CLS-200 aircraft.

A Silent Arrow GD-2000 carrying a 1,000-pound payload is loaded aboard an MC-130J for deployment in the INDOPACOM AOR.
A Silent Arrow GD-2000 carrying a 1,000-pound payload is loaded aboard an MC-130J for deployment in the INDOPACOM AOR.
Silent Arrow

Silent Arrow has announced it has been selected by The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for a $1.8M Direct to Phase II SBIR contract focused on building and flight testing the Silent Arrow CLS-200 ("Contested Logistics System, 200 Nautical Miles") attritable special missions Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

The CLS-200 relies on the foundational engineering of the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world's first heavy payload, autonomous and attritable cargo delivery aircraft to enter full-rate production.

The GD-2000 has been deployed in the United States and in multiple overseas countries from a variety of aircraft including the C-130H, MC-130J, C-27J and Airbus A400M. Mass production is based in the UK and led by Silent Arrow manufacturing partner The MEL Group under AS9100, with Airbus DS Airborne Solutions GmbH also partnered with Silent Arrow to distribute and support the GD-2000 heavy cargo delivery UAS platform throughout European market segments.

Whereas the GD-2000 is an unpowered glider, the new CLS-200 can travel six times as far by utilizing an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are inexpensive enough to allow the entire cargo drone to be single-use. In addition to being air droppable, it will also be capable of taking off from the ground including from unimproved surfaces, naval vessels and other launch points.

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